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> I signed up for an amateur radio licensing course

That's actually very relevant. This is the best way to learn a few EE junior-level fundamentals before you even take classes on them, and a majority of EEs and RF engineers are hams. It's an excellent way to network in the industry.

RFwise, the default answer around here is Pozar's Microwave Engineering book for some excellent theory, as well as Experimental Methods in RF Design for practical examples and projects.

I would also find a way to get HFSS/CST/FEKO through your university, either by taking courses and look for opportunities for research or independent study. Practically, build some ham radio antennas, get an RTLSDR (see /r/RTLSDR) and play around, build some cheap transmitter and receiver kits like the Pixie, and get involved with a ham club.

The indistury is strongly moving towards SDR and FPGA-based radio designs, so it might be wise to learn a bit VHDL/Verilog/FPGA programming, which is something I need to do. The industry uses a ton of MATLAB too.

If you are looking for a good RF internship/coop, I would look at Radio Observatories like the Very Large Array. If you meet Paul Harden (ham call NA5N) and mention you want to learn about RF design, he will blow your mind.

I also agree that Microwave Transistor Amplifiers by Gonzalez is a great book. It's very much a microwave/RF theory book and my brother just aqcuired it. I'll be able to refer to it for a while but may one day add it to my collection as well. I just bought Cornell Drentea's Modern Communication Receiver Design and Technology. Drentea's book was aimed to be a textbook but is not quite what one would consider a textbook so it never really took off. However, It's a great book for the practical application of transceiver design techniques and is a great reference to anyone interested in RF circuits design, not just RF theory (lets use what we know!).

That is a FANTASTIC reference book. Keep it forever because it will always be useful. IMHO, he doesn't even make an attempt to teach anything with that book, but it has earned a place on my bookshelf next to Paul, and Rhode&Schwartz's book on VNAs.

I'm loathed to recommend Balanis because I had so much trouble with that book, but it did cover waveguides reasonably well. Or at least, I think he covered waveguides better than he did boundary conditions and incident reflections.

In the end I wound up reading about 4 textbooks to get a good understanding during my first graduate EM course. I don't recall which they were anymore but I'm pretty sure all but Balanis were openly published and could be found again. I believe that I found one of the ones that I used under MIT's open courseware.

Pozar's Microwave Engineering is a great book.

Microwaves 101 is a great website. It has information on how to self-educate on the subject as well (book suggestions, etc.)

Intro to Airbourne RADAR is another nice book with a RADAR focus.

The Agilent Impedance Measurement Handbook is required reading IMHO.

There are quite a bit of great papers published by the big companies, for example Rhode & Schwartz, Agilent, Analog Devices, and so on. Once you learn about what the names of the subfields of focus are you can look for papers on a particular technology or simulation/testing/analysis method.

I second Pozar and also recommend an oldie: "Design of Amplifiers and Oscillators by the S-parameter Method," which is a good complement to Pozar. (It doesn't hurt that you can pick it up for ~$10 used on Amazon)

Also, [Gonzalez](Microwave Transistor Amplifiers: Analysis and Design ) is a good book for microwaves/RF.

You may also like Microwaves 101, a truly great website.

Usually you can worry primarily about thermal noise in RF and subsume other noise sources into component specs as "noise figure".

Thermal noise dominates non-semiconductor noise at RF frequencies.

Semiconductors are all these other noise sources but in practice you subsume them into NF. NF is empirically measured for a given amplifier or component. So you pull it off of a data sheet most often.

There are some issues with that because many of these other noise sources are current or voltage dependent in magnitude so it's important to define/use a constant bias on the semiconductor when you measure NF.

The last issue, which does bite you in RF perversely is 1/f noise. 1/f noise only occurs in semiconductor devices at frequencies below 1 MHz and often only below 1 KHz. The characteristic on a Lin-Log spectrum is a straight line with -1 slope or f(^-1) or 1/f. There are other types of noise that have other exponents as well but 1/f is one of the dominant ones.

So how does a low frequency noise phenomena become an RF problem? Oscillators. Both fixed oscillators and especially VCOs as used in PLLs. Because 1/f is "low frequency DC", things like semiconductor bias point and VCO offset always have a 1/f noise component and that cause the RF frequency out of the oscillator to have a "skirt" that is known as "phase noise". Phase noise typically defines numerous RF design spec limitations from carrier accuracy to channel spacing to data rate.

Programs like SPICE do solve noise (using the .NOISE command) as primarily thermal noise (newer semiconductor models do shot and other noise types). SPICE does this for every resistor in the circuit, both user defined and linearized component defined (semiconductors) had a series a noise voltage source (making every resistor a Thevenin).

This done by solving the large signal bias point, solving the parameters of the hybrid pi models of all semiconductors and then setting user defined signal inputs to zero and only having voltage noise sources in the circuit and solving for noise voltages and currents through out.

This is NOT hand-calculation viable but only computer-only viable as circuit analysis. Your transistor SPICE models must support noise parameters as does your SPICE simulator (all do thermal noise but not all do other types - remember the voltage/current dependencies of many of these - it's a bookkeeping mess only a computer does well).

Usually you get SPICE models with noise parameters from the transistor vendor. The transistor vendor measures the noise empirically to generate the SPICE parameters. They do that by buying test systems like my company makes. It's not cheap - typically $100K-$500K worth of capital investment.

For hand solution you usually do NOT do transistor-level solutions but instead do a system flow diagram level of noise-by-stage in the signal path using Noise Figure which has all those kinds of noise bundled in.

If you are crazy like I am and want to dig deeper into the various types of noise seen in semiconductor:

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~wilambm/pap/2011/K10147_C011.pdf

The general rule of thumb: noise comes from material boundaries and their imperfections. The specific physics due to that cause each type (or don't - it becomes semiconductor device design specific).

I don't have this book but it looks relevant to your question ($$$$$):

https://www.amazon.com/Noise-Theory-Linear-Nonlinear-Circuits/dp/047194825X

Hi. There's a couple things you can do to reduce RFI. Like you said, you can use a shielded cable. It would help if you can connect both ends to ground -- but make sure your electrical mains entrance ground is correct and up to code. You should have a ground rod right below the entrance, and it should be connected to your panel. All lines should be grounded lines, and you should have 3-prong outlets for all circuits. Get an outlet tester to be sure all sockets are wired correctly.

Another thing you can do is add ferrites on all wires going into and out of the HVAC units (power, data, everything). These act as RF filters.

Now bluetooth and microwave ovens use the same frequency band (2.4 GHz). Its not unusual for some low level RF energy to leak out of microwave ovens, and overpower a low-power data connection like bluetooth. But if its more than a low-power leak it may indicate a faulty oven, or a bad ground.

Its possible you have a nearby intermittent transmitter that is affecting things. It could be an airport thing, or maybe a two-way radio like for police or fire, or maybe a neighbor with a CB radio or ham radio. If this is a licensed user and they have a correctly engineered installation, its up to your devices to accept interference. Proper grounding and filtering will help though.

I hope this gives you someplace to start. Good luck.

It would be cheaper for you to buy the equipment than outsource this, plus it's useful equipment. Actually, you probably already have the equipment you need.

If this board is only populated on one side, then this should be easy. Get yourself a hot plate like this: http://amazon.com/Aroma-AHP-303-CHP-303-Single-Plate/dp/B0007QCRNU

Heat it up to medium. You only want to heat up a small part of the board, so find a nut or some smallish piece of metal roughly the size of the component you are removing. Place the nut on the hot plate, and with needle nose pliers or tweezers hold the PCB on top of the nut. After a couple minutes, the component should flow, so use tweezers to pull it off.

Next cool it off slowly and clean it up with some wick and apply some paste. If you don't have paste, put a little bit of solder on each pad and some extra flux on top of it.

Now heat the board up again and put the new component on and it should flow on just fine.

If you don't have a hot plate, you may be able to substitute your kitchen range (assuming it's electric and not gas), but be very careful, as you could probably easily burn your PCB, and it's not a method I've tried.

It the board is populated on both sides but the area under the component is still bare you may still get this to work, but you have to be very careful not to burn the components by having a taller piece of metal to conduct from the hot plate to the PCB.

I found Microstrip Lines and Slotlines by Gupta, Garg and Bahl to be an excellent reference and for learning about microstrip, and I trust the author's subsequent works.

The same authors wrote Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook although I haven't read it.

It looks like Pozar wrote a book on Microstrip Antennas which is worth a look (I haven't read this one either). His Microwave Engineering is an excellent textbook.

OH my god, the struggle is real.

This is one I was able to find:

https://www.amazon.com/Smith-Chart-Notebook-Gelding-Publishing/dp/1502718111

However I never bought it. We didn't do a lot on smith charts, I wish I'd had more opportunity.

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My favorite notebooks:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MP9D5AG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Why:

1.) F-ing graph paper

2.) Thick pages. I like colored markers for notes, like these: https://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Triplus-Fineliner-Assorted-334SB20BK/dp/B0007OEE7E/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Staedtler&qid=1570659385&s=office-products&sr=1-2

The thick pages doesn't allow (as much) marker bleed and the notebooks hold up for a long time.

3.) F-ing graph paper and thick pages.

Bowick, RF Circuit Design is the book that every RF engineer at Motorola had.

http://www.amazon.com/Circuit-Design-Second-Christopher-Bowick/dp/0750685182

I haven't seen the 2nd edition, but the first was a pretty good book.

RF Microelectronics by Razavi is very, very good. It was recommended in my RF IC seminar and I found it very helpful.

https://www.amazon.com/Microelectronics-Communications-Engineering-Technologies-Rappaport/dp/0137134738/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493106379&sr=1-1&keywords=rf+microelectronics+razavi

This one has been helpful. You should also learn to know and love smith charts. Very useful in matching impedances, and will make filter design ever so much easier.

Looks like he released the 4th ed recently

He also has Modern Antenna Handbook

And several others, thank you for bringing my attention to him!

If you are interested in doing anything in the microwave spectrum (which includes most modern communication standards), then Pozar is the book which everyone seems to have for the basics. The first couple chapters are super math heavy in deriving stuff from electromagnetics, but if simply learn the basics of transmission lines either from there or from another source, the following chapters mostly contain algebra, if I recall correctly.

Pozar. Covers a good variety of the basics of RF.

Pozar for passives: http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Engineering-David-M-Pozar/dp/0470631554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324903362&sr=8-1

Gray and Meyer for actives: http://www.amazon.com/Microwave-Engineering-David-M-Pozar/dp/0470631554/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324903362&sr=8-1

http://www.microwaves101.com if you are poor.